This system currently powers a 400W Air Conditioner from late morning to late afternoon, a full sized MAME arcade cabinet, and wireless router.
Best it can do is 8 degrees cooler than outside as things stand, but for the most part now I have what I was after, automated cooling for our shed. I have began insulating using bubble-foil insulation, and expect to improve performance.
Current configuration:
- (1) 40A MPPT with (2) series strings of (3) 100W Mono panels in parallel (72V)
- (1) 20A MPPT with (2) 100W Mono panels in series (48V)
- (1) 50A MPPT DC-to-DC charge controller with (1) 100W Mono panel (24V)
- (1) 10A PWM connected for windmill
- (1) PV Combiner box with 6 fuses and diodes
- (1) 1500W pure sine inverter connected to 150Ah
- (1) LiFePO4 50Ah battery on the 10A, 40A, & 50A CCs
- (1) LiFePO4 150Ah battery on the 20A, 50A CCs
- (1) 500F Super Capacitor parallel with the 150Ah battery
- (1) 200A Inline power meter with shunt and display
- (1) 12VDC Switchbox, connected to 150Ah battery
- (1) 24VDC Switchbox, directly connected to (1) 100W panel for daytime (24V)
- (1) 5-24VDC Timer Relay
- (1) 24VDC cooling fan
- (1) 16W wind turbine connected to 50Ah battery bank
- (1) Boost converter inline between windmill and 10A CC
Here is a crude wiring diagram:
Wind turbine produces 9-12V when wind is blowing strong and steady, and the charge controller doesn’t really kick in unless the input voltage is higher than battery voltage, so I added one of these boost converters that basically convert amps into higher voltage, heres what that looks like in some gusts:
How you could recreate my setup (except how Id rather do things now):
- PV Panels and Charge Controllers:
- Connect the series strings of 100W mono panels to the PV combiner box using 10 AWG copper wire. Use 15A fuses on the positive wires of each string.
- Connect the 40A MPPT charge controller to the PV combiner box using 10 AWG copper wire. Use a 50A fuse on the positive wire to the 50Ah battery block terminal.
- Connect the 20A MPPT charge controller to the 100W mono panels in series using 12 AWG copper wire. Use a 30A fuse on the positive wire to the 150Ah battery block terminal
- Connect the 50A MPPT DC-to-DC charge controller to the 100W mono panel using 12 AWG copper wire. Use a 15A fuse on the positive wire.
- Battery Banks and Charge Controllers:
- Connect the 150Ah battery bank to the 10A and 50A charge controllers using 6 AWG copper wire to the fused terminal block for 150Ah battery bank.
- Connect the 50Ah battery bank to the 10A, 40A, and 50A charge controllers using 6 AWG copper wire. Use 15A, 50A, 60A fuses to the fused terminal block for 50Ah battery bank
- Supercapacitor and Inverter:
- Connect the supercapacitor in parallel with the 150Ah battery bank using 2 AWG copper wire. Use a 120A fuse on the positive wire between the supercapacitor and the battery bank.
- Connect the battery bank (150Ah + supercapacitor) to the inverter using 2 AWG copper wire. Use a 120A fuse on the positive wire between the battery bank and the inverter.
- Boost Converter and Windmill:
- Connect the windmill to the boost converter using 8 AWG copper wire.
- Connect the output of the boost converter to the 10A PWM charge controller using 12 AWG copper wire. Use a 15A fuse on the positive wire between the boost converter and the charge controller.
- Power Meter and Shunt:
- Connect the power meter and shunt in series with the shared negative connection of the battery banks using 2 AWG copper wire.
- Inverter Grounding:
- Ground the inverter by connecting the grounding wire to a grounding rod or grounding system using 6 AWG copper wire.
- PV Combiner Box and Grounding:
- Connect grounding wires from the PV combiner box and other relevant components to a grounding rod or grounding system using 6AWG copper wire
- 6AWG ground extended from pv combiner box to each solar panel frame, daisy-chained, drilled through frame.
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